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World in shock as the improved British Airways economy food turn out to be quite good

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It is a now a week since British Airways launched its improved World Traveller long haul economy food offering.  I’m pleased to say that the response from Head for Points readers who have tried it so far is very positive.

Here is my original article which outlines exactly what was changing.

Here is what one reader got on the relatively short (7 hour) flight to Muscat last Friday, which he described as ‘definitely an improvement’:

First up (the bag only contained three pretzels, however):

British Airways economy food

…. followed by a surprisingly decent main meal which – if plated – would not be far off some Club World meals I have had on British Airways:

British Airways economy food

…. with the sandwiches for a small 2nd meal nearer landing – again, this is not a lot different, apart from the missing scones, to what you would get in Club World (they don’t open the packet for you in Club World either ….):

British Airways economy food

Reader Neil flew to Las Vegas for the massive CES conference and told me:

“Food much improved.  We got the main meal of beef or chicken, then half way through the flight some popcorn and other snacks and then, unexpectedly, about an hour before landing a ‘folded pizza in a box’ with some other bits.  I have to confess, much better than I was expecting/dreading.”

There was also a positive article in The Sunday Times over the weekend, which is here but behind a paywall unfortunately, which was also very enthusiastic about the changes.

The next question is what happens with World Traveller Plus catering.  A revamp of the entire WTP ‘soft product’ (ie not the seat) is expected later in 2018.

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Category

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Comments (36)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Steve says:
    25 Jan25 January 05:49

    Lower the expectations to the absolute minimum and then any small improvement looks amazing.

    • Simon says:
      25 Jan25 January 06:13

      Yup. The description of the LV meals matches what I had on Delta to Salt Lake City last spring. So this feels like a levelling up to the competition.

      But still – gift horses in the mouth etc.

    • James says:
      25 Jan25 January 11:37

      Ha Ha. True.

    • Simon says:
      25 Jan25 January 12:53

      Agree, Qantas did the same in Australia. They stripped everything (domestically) then slowly brought back food, drinks in the evenings- and everyone thought is was amazing. BA I (hope?) is going the same…

      • Fiona says:
        27 Jan27 January 09:59

        No, they are improving the food in economy to start charging for drinks soon.

  • Rob Hutchison says:
    25 Jan25 January 05:50

    Currently in HK outta Heathrow . gotta say the food on the way out looked like this but tasted like crap. Ran out of two choices for dinner and breakfast. giime virgin any day

    • John Stoddart says:
      25 Jan25 January 06:39

      Rob I flew out to HK on 18th and food was great, though we were in Club. I never expect anything too great from BA in any class but this was def good. They need to improve their wine choice IMHO.

      • Rob Hutchison says:
        25 Jan25 January 07:32

        Flew on 22nd and only ever fly economy John, price was cheap as chips so I shouldn’t grumble and I was out for dinner when I arrived anyway. i’m teetotal so you could have had my wine, there only so much pop you can drink in 11 hours!

    • Catalan says:
      25 Jan25 January 07:56

      …so why didn’t you choose Virgin this time round?

    • Jim says:
      25 Jan25 January 21:05

      in Y? whats Y (honestly) like on a long flight like that?

  • krys_k says:
    25 Jan25 January 07:25

    I read One Mile at a Time, not as religiously as HFP, and on there, readers like to share ‘race to the bottom’ comments about the US airlines. Being fluent in another language, not one of the major ones, means I read similar comments about a national flag carrier as people post about BA. I’m not saying they’re always amazing, but I do enjoy BA club world and on occasion economy and first, and consider the improved food part of an overall decent enough offing rather than a step up from the ‘race to the bottom’ which I don’t believe exists.

  • Mark says:
    25 Jan25 January 07:28

    WTP definitely needs dedicated check in desks as an improvement, this is standard on the competition

    • Rashad says:
      25 Jan25 January 08:00

      Where have you seen dedicated checkin-in for WTP

    • Leo says:
      25 Jan25 January 08:32

      I agree – Virgin, AF, Vietnam, all PE products offer dedicated check-in. It’s specifically altered my choice of carrier in the past – i.e. VS over BA.

      • JamesB says:
        25 Jan25 January 18:05

        Also have to pay for seat reservation on BA but not AT. Seat selection fees in premium cabins is a no no IMO.

  • Will says:
    25 Jan25 January 07:34

    Lot of plastic there. Do they have anything of a recycling policy?

  • Jane says:
    25 Jan25 January 07:43

    I was just on LAX-LHR this week and they either forgot about the “improvements” or I don’t know what happened because only 2 meals were served with the second one being a measly English breakfast approximation just before we started descending. I had to ask for a snack in the meantime (got pretzels….) and was really hungry towards the end of the flight. The funny thing is I was going to get some snacks for this flight but then I read about the roll out of the improvements and figured I’ll survive …..

    • Jim says:
      25 Jan25 January 21:07

      in Y? Would you recommend Y on such a long flight?

      PS I always say to myself “must have own snacks”!

  • Alex says:
    25 Jan25 January 08:17

    Just got back from nyc-Lon on WT+ 747 must’ve gotten unlucky as I believed the route to have been refurbished since 2016 but alas no luck. Old seat with no in seat power, screen about 6” get bigger in economy! Food was terrible and a lot less than the econmy picture above. Only good thing were the crew! Can’t really say was a letdown as BA always are.

  • ankomonkey says:
    25 Jan25 January 08:30

    While we should be grateful for a second meal, looking at the size of it, even my 6 year old would still be hungry after eating it.

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